Sound Toys

I've included these two small programs that you may find useful and amusing. The download is HERE.

SoundToy - This program paves the "player screen" with buttons that represent sound files. The user can play the sounds just by hovering over the buttons. This program was intended to encourage movement and exploration at the cause and effect level. It works well with one of the free camera mice programs available on the Internet (CameraMouse 2009, Enable Viacam, and Efmer Track!) The setup is easy - you just type 's' on the keyboard to open the setup screen, locate a folder with sound files in it in ".wav" format, set the play type ("nominal" works best,) and the action type ("Play on mouse over and click" for hover users.) KidPix has a good selection of sounds in a folder, but you can use anything you like as long as they are ".wav" type files. Be sure to maximize the application so it covers the whole screen. The download is HERE.

The SoundToy setup screen:

SoundSquare2 - This program can be used for cause and effect, but was intended to move beyond cause and effect. This program is also intended to be used with a camera mouse. When the user moves the mouse cursor outside the square they will hear one of possibly four sounds depending on the direction they moved. Once opened type 'e' to enter the setup screen. Then choose a sound file for each of the four directions. You can also set the rate at which the square will drift towards the mouse cursor. This feature was intended to revise the starting position for users who can only produce small intentional movements, but may who may inevitably shift their body position. The sounds are only heard when the cursor exits the square. In the "Play" screen the square can be made smaller by pressing 's' and bigger by pressing 'b'. This is an experimental program that could be used to evaluate intent by seeing if the user can consistently find a preferred sound. It could further developed to offer an alternative interface for a communications device or other applications. Set it up with sounds like "yes", "no", "I need help", "leave me alone, please" for simple communications. Let me know if you think this will be useful for someone you know. If the program unexpectedly closes it is likely that one of the sound resources has a bad path, or is a sound type other than a ".wav" file. The download is HERE.

TheSoundSquare2 Play screen:

The download is HERE.